Should You Keep Your Personal and Business Lives Separate on Twitter?

Rick Calvert is the creator of Blog World Expo, which is one of the largest conferences that people in the Blogosphere flock to each year. Earlier today, he was publicly condemned on Twitter for a couple of comments he made in reference to the iPad. Apparently, a few people took serious issue with the fact that he posts personal opinions under the Blog World Twitter account.

This raises an important question: Should you keep your personal opinion to yourself on your business account? Calvert is quick to point out that his bio on the social networking site clearly states that the account is both his business – and – personal account. However, a few attendees (and perhaps potential advertisers?) weren’t happy with his commentary. They strongly proclaimed that the things Rick said reflected badly on the brand, and should have been kept out of the stream of chatter.

What do you think? Can a person’s opinion make their entire business look bad? Should people get so upset over one man’s commentary and then demand that he register himself a whole new account to talk about what HE thinks?